Themost watched and most competitive Paralympic Games in history have wrapped upwith Canada leaving London following its worst showing ever.

Ifthese Games, which enjoyed an unprecedented spotlight in Great Britain, haveindeed marked a turning point in the movement for athletes with a disability,then Canada will need to hope its re-commitment to recruitment and awarenessbears some fruit if it wants to return to a prominent place in the medalspecking order.

Apositive final weekend – gold medals in cycling by visually-impaired RobbiWeldon and from the men's wheelchair basketball team, and a silver inwheelchair rugby – allowed Canada to bask in a bit of late patrioticflag-waving.

Butthe final medal tally fell well short of the admittedly ambitious,publicly-stated target – top eight in golds – and missed even the privatewhat-we-hope-will-happen numbers.

Canadawon just seven gold medals, down from 19 in Beijing and 38 only 12 years ago inSydney, and 31 total medals. That left the country in 20th placebased on gold medals and 13th in overall medals. Canada was seventhin gold medals at Beijing and had been top four in five of the seven Gamesbefore 2008.

“Whilewe're extremely proud of our athletes and our coaches, not reaching our targetis something we take very seriously,” said Henry Storgaard, the CPC's chiefexecutive officer.

Withmore than 250 world records set at London, more specialization and morecountries than ever before bringing elite athletes, Paralympic competition hasgotten infinitely tougher over the last quadrennial.

“Justin the last year, (we've seen) how what was a world-record performance, a worldchampionship gold medal was being pushed even further that quickly,” said RobNeedham, the CPC's executive director of sport. “It's amazing to see theincreased investment among our competitors and, frankly, just the talent anddedication of the athletes around the world.

“Whatwe saw in London was phenomenal.”

Storgaardand Needham lamented the fact that only four per cent of Canadians with adisability are active in organized sport and recreation as opposed to 33 percent of the able-bodied population.

“Givenour relatively limited population size, it's even more critical that we beefficient,” said Needham. “Certain other countries have tens of millions ofpeople with disabilities and can afford to throw numbes at the challenge,whereas we know if we're to be competitive and get back to where we want to bein the medal standings, we need to be reaching a vastly higher pecentage of ourpeople with disabilities.

China,with a reported 40 million people with a disability, was even more dominantthan it was in Beijing in 2008, earning 95 gold medals, nearly three times thatof second-place Russia, and 231 total medals.

“We'reall jealous of their program, their depth of field . . . and quite franklyscratching our heads at how do we address this incredible challenge from thetiger nation,” said Storgaard. “We have to re-double our efforts and visit someof these top-performing countries to find out what is going on.

So,too, do Russia (35 gold, 101 total medals) and the Ukraine (32, 83), both ofwhich also have schools dedicated solely for disabled children and youngadults.

ElizabethWalker-Young, Canada's assitant chef de mission, says that speaks to societalnorms that just don't exist in Canada.

“InCanada, people with disabilities are integrated into society at a fairly highlevel and some of our competitors who have made huge jumps in the past decadestill live in societies where kids go to segregated schools. You have asituation where they say 'we need this kind of athlete' and they go from there.It's a fine balance.”

Asit did with the Olympics, London put on a 'bloody good,' Paralympic show,recreating all the excitement and interest despite a 2 1-2 week break betweenGames.

Ticketssales and television ratings set records in the country considered thebirthplace of the Games. British teenage sprinter Jonnie Peacock, who upsetParalympic icon Oscar Pistorius in the 100 metres for leg amputees, quadruplewheelchair track gold medalist David Weir and swimmer Ellie Simmonds weretreated as heroes on par with UK Olympic stars Bradley Wiggins, Mo Farrah andJessica Ennis.

Now,there are still issues that will keep the Paralympics in the considerableOlympic shadow.

Thenumber of classes required to take into account the myriad of physicaldifferences, particularly in track and swimming, can make it confusing for thepublic. And in some of those classes, the depth of field is thin and times ordistances thrown are simply too pedestrian to generate much excitement.

Butit shouldn't diminish the fact that the competitors are still the best at whatthey do. And some of the sprints on the track and in the pool and the play inwheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby was tight, dramatic and verycompelling.

Justabout the only negative note for the IPC was the glaring lack of interest fromits North American broadcast partners. CTV provided only late-night highlightpackages and NBC is showing only four one-hour highlight shows after the Gamesare over.

“Weall need to be able to bottle this somehow and spread that message [of publicinterest] and convince our broadcasters to cover the Games more than just anhour of highlights late at night,” said Storgaard. “We're receiving email afteremail from Canadians who are very disappointed with the coverage. There's atremedous demand.”

Bettercoverage, he said, will lead to more awareness.

“Fromthat awareness that public trust will build better programs and we'll be ableto attract more volunteers, more coaches and more athletes.”

In less than a week, Abbotsford recording artists Hedley went from touring Canada with two supporting acts and a popular new album to pariahs ensnared in allegations of sexual misconduct. On Monday, accusations that band members Jacob Hoggard, Dave Rosin, Tommy Mac and Jay Benison had engaged in sexual behaviour with teenage girls surfaced on Twitter […]

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